1 This is the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi:

2“I have loved you,” says the Lord.

But you ask, “How have You loved us?”

“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved, 3but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

4 Though Edom may say, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people with whom the Lord is indignant forever. 5You will see this with your own eyes, and you yourselves will say, ‘The Lord is great — even beyond the borders of Israel.’”

6“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the Lord of Hosts to you priests who despise My name.

“But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’

7 By presenting defiled food on My altar.

But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’

By saying that the table of the Lord is contemptible.

8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present the lame and sick ones, is it not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the Lord of Hosts.

9“But ask now for God’s favor. Will He be gracious? Since this has come from your hands, will He show you favor?” asks the Lord of Hosts.

10“Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the Lord of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.

11 For My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name, because My name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of Hosts. 12“But you profane it when you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is contemptible.’

13 You also say: ‘Oh, what a nuisance!’ And you turn up your nose at it,” says the Lord of Hosts.

“You bring offerings that are stolen, lame, or sick! Should I accept these from your hands?” asks the Lord.

14“But cursed is the deceiver who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but sacrifices a defective animal to the Lord. For I am a great King,” says the Lord of Hosts, “and My name is to be feared among the nations.’’

1 “ And now this decree is for you, O priests:

2 If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the Lord of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already begun to curse them, because you are not taking it to heart.

3 Behold, I will rebuke your descendants, and I will spread dung on your faces, the waste from your feasts, and you will be carried off with it.

4 Then you will know that I have sent you this commandment so that My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the Lord of Hosts. 5“My covenant with him was one of life and peace, which I gave to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name.

6 True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. 7For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

8 But you have departed from the way, and your instruction has caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of Hosts. 9“So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

10 Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with one another so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?

11 Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god. 12As for the man who does this, may the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who is awake and aware — even if he brings an offering to the Lord of Hosts.

13 And this is another thing you do: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and groaning, because He no longer regards your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands.

14 Yet you ask, “Why?”

It is because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

15 Has not the Lord made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

16“For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “He who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence,” says the Lord of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith.

17 You have wearied the Lord with your words; yet you ask, “How have we wearied Him?”

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord, and in them He delights,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying:

5 And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.” 6And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life. 7The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.

8 But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

9 Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11shining with the glory of God. Its radiance was like a most precious jewel, like a jasper, as clear as crystal. 12The city had a great and high wall with twelve gates inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and twelve angels at the gates. 13There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south, and three on the west. 14The wall of the city had twelve foundations bearing the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 The angel who spoke with me had a golden measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16The city lies foursquare, with its width the same as its length. And he measured the city with the rod, and all its dimensions were equal — 12,000 stadia in length and width and height. 17And he measured its wall to be 144 cubits, by the human measure the angel was using.

18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city itself of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19The foundations of the city walls were adorned with every kind of precious stone:

21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate consisting of a single pearl. The main street of the city was pure gold, as clear as glass.

22 But I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24By its light the nations will walk, and into it the kings of the earth will bring their glory. 25Its gates will never be shut at the end of the day, because there will be no night there.

26 And into the city will be brought the glory and honor of the nations. 27But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.